Patient autonomy and the defence of medical necessity: five Dutch euthanasia cases.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Altruism↗
Biomedical subjects
Marja Verhoef
Publications and source records attributed to Marja Verhoef.
Canada: agreement between patient and proxy information about colorectal cancer therapies.
Proxies, such as next of kin, often provide information to healthcare professionals about a cancer patient they know, particularly when this information is not available from the patient. Understanding the extent to which proxies offer reliable information about patients is important for improving the quality of patient care and also for assessing the quality of research, evaluation, and administrative data when proxy response is utilized. This study determined Levels of agreement between information reported by colorectal cancer patients and by their proxies about complementary and alternative medicine obtained by questionnaire response. Patient-proxy agreement was also compared for conventional therapies, patient demographics, lifestyle, and symptoms.
Adult↗
Evaluating a yogic breathing and meditation intervention for individuals living with HIV/AIDS.
PURPOSE: To assess the effectiveness of a group program aimed at improving well-being among individuals living with HIV/AIDS. METHODS: A randomized controlled trial was used to evaluate a residential program designed to teach breathing, movement, and meditation techniques. Sixty-two participants were recruited from community HIV/AIDS organizations. Fifteen withdrawals from the study left 47 study participants. Standardized measures used were the Mental Health Index (MHI), the MOS-HIV Health Survey (MOS), and the Daily Stress Inventory (DSI), along with qualitative interviews. RESULTS: A repeated-measures analysis of variance indicated positive changes in well-being on the MHI and the MOS, where the effect was primarily seen immediately following the program and disappeared at later data points. The DSI indicated an increase in experience and impact of stress over time for the intervention group postprogram. Alternatively, the qualitative interviews described positive changes in how participants were living their day-to-day lives. CONCLUSION: In order to capture the outcomes of this program properly, both qualitative and quantitative measures are needed.
Female↗
Whole systems research: a discipline for studying complementary and alternative medicine.
The new discipline of whole systems research (WSR) targets the study of complex CAM therapies as system-level phenomena, as opposed to single-agent or uni-dimensional effects. This article describes the pre-defined goals, issues that were developed, and opportunities that were revealed in a workshop held in Vancouver BC, in which scientists, practitioners, and policy makers met to lay the foundations of WSR. Important issues were identified, such as treatment individualization, problems of diagnosis, patient-practitioner interaction, varying therapeutic contexts, and patient-determined outcome values. Research design issues that were addressed included a variety of challenges to the study of intact systems, in relation to both synergy and emergent behaviors, and the opportunities to innovate the conventional RCT. As the network of CAM scientists and practitioners engaged in WSR expands, a common nomenclature and body of techniques will help us to a better understanding of the ways in which whole systems affect healing.
British Columbia↗
Integrative healthcare: arriving at a working definition.
A variety of integrative healthcare programs and clinics have been initiated both in Canada and the United States. Many different terms (eg, integrative medicine, integrated medicine, multidisciplinary care, integrative health care) are used to describe these initiatives. The diversity of terminology and absence of a shared conceptual framework makes it difficult to assess when integration is actually happening. The objective of this paper was to explore current efforts to conceptualize integrative healthcare and to identify its components. A qualitative content analysis of articles identified in an extensive literature review resulted in the identification of four key components of integrative care: philosophy/values, structure, process and outcomes. These were used to guide the development of a definition of integrative healthcare that should be seen as an "ideal type" or goal toward which practitioners and health systems could strive.
Canada↗